AllFreeNovel
Share Us
All I know is that it feels like lightning struck my spine. Tingles ignite everywhere. I’m flushed with heat, hungry for more.
He’s finally managed to do what he’s been attempting since the first day of school–discombobulate me.
I yank my hand out of his grasp and search his face.
A slow, cocky grin appears.
Damn him.
I should walk out. Leave him to figure out this lab on his own. But something won’t let me move.
Abe releases my wrist and my waist in slow increments, so I barely notice when I’m free.
He pushes the instruction sheet across the counter toward me. For some reason, he thinks he’s won. Because he got under my skin. Mastered me.
Since my feet are refusing to walk away, I turn my attention to the lab–where it should’ve been this whole time, anyway. I pull down the beakers and test tubes.
“How much of the solution do we need?” I ask.
Abe glances down at the paper, squints, and looks back up. Then he takes the solution from me–not in a gentlemanly way, more of a snatchy, mine kind of way. “You tell me,” he challenges.
I stare at him, trying to figure out this confusing-as-hell guy. And that’s when I realize what I should’ve figured out weeks ago when he began this whole game of making me do all the work for him.
Abe might actually struggle with schoolwork. What if it’s not just laziness? He could be like the college athletes you hear about who never learned to read above a third-grade level and somehow fake it through or get passed through because of their physical prowess. Or maybe he can’t read at all.
I remember him squinting at the text on my phone the same way.
Could he be dyslexic? Or neurodiverse in some other, undiagnosed way?
Or maybe it is diagnosed, but he doesn’t want anyone to know. He could be the classic bully–using fronting and intimidation to cover up his own perceived weakness.
Huh.
It’s an interesting thought. If I’m right, it would make him less detestable.
I drop the condescension and just pretend he’s a normal lab partner who is willing to share the work. I give him instructions and narrate out loud what I’m doing.
And…he follows along.
In fact, he seems somewhat relieved.
Well.
I learned something new.
We finish the lab with perfect results, and Ms. Miller walks over to praise us.
When she walks away, Abe takes off his goggles and folds his arms over his chest in his patently cocky way. “You’re good at this, Pearls.”
You’re not. I don’t say it out loud.
I have a lot more compassion for him suddenly. Even though he’s a royal ass most of the time, at least I understand him more now.
“I guess you get to play ball tonight after all.” The bell rings, and I pick up my backpack.
“I’ll see you there.” He gives me a Hollywood-worthy smirk followed by a wink.
I’m fascinated by my own flutter of interest in response. These signs of life he brings out in me. “I’m not going,” I say to his departing back.
